To change your Google Photos backup settings, follow these steps within the Google Photos app:
- Start the Google Photos app on your phone or tablet.
- Ensure you are signed into your Google account. If not, sign in using your credentials.
- Tap your account avatar or profile picture, located at the top right of the screen.
- Select "Photo settings".
- On the "Settings" page, tap "Back up & sync".
Within the "Back up & sync" settings, you can modify the following:
-
Toggle Backup & Sync On/Off: Turn the entire backup process on or off. Disabling this will stop new photos and videos from being automatically backed up.
-
Backup Account: Choose the Google account you want to use for backing up your photos.
-
Upload Size: Select the quality and size of your backed-up photos and videos. Options usually include:
- Original Quality: Backs up photos and videos in their original resolution, counting towards your Google account storage.
- Storage Saver (formerly High Quality): Compresses photos and videos slightly, saving storage space. Photos are reduced to 16MP and videos to 1080p. This option may no longer count towards your Google account storage, depending on your account and settings. Google has changed storage policies in recent years, so check current policy.
-
Back up device folders: Choose which specific folders on your device get backed up. By default, the camera folder is usually backed up.
-
Back up over mobile data: Enable or disable backing up photos and videos using mobile data. It's recommended to disable this option if you have a limited data plan. You can also set a daily limit for mobile data usage for backups.
-
Roaming: Choose to back up photos when you are roaming. Use this cautiously to avoid excessive data charges.
-
Video Backups: A separate setting to control whether videos are backed up, and if so, under what conditions (e.g., Wi-Fi only or also using mobile data).
By adjusting these settings, you can customize how Google Photos backs up your photos and videos to suit your storage needs and data preferences.
